Physical Disk Object

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

The PhysicalDisk performance object consists of counters that monitor hard or fixed disk drives. Disks are used to store file, program, and paging data. They are read to retrieve these items, and are written to record changes to them. The values of physical disk counters are sums of the values of the logical disks (or partitions) into which they are divided.

Counter Name Description Counter Type

% Disk Read Time

Shows the percentage of time that the selected disk drive was busy servicing read requests.

PERF_PRECISION_100NS_TIMER

% Disk Time

Shows the percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive was busy servicing read or write requests.

PERF_PRECISION_100NS_TIMER

% Disk Write Time

Shows the percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive was busy servicing write requests.

PERF_PRECISION_100NS_TIMER

% Idle Time

Shows the percentage of elapsed time during the sample interval that the selected disk drive was idle.

PERF_PRECISION_100NS_TIMER

Avg. Disk Bytes/Read

Shows the average number of bytes that were transferred from the disk during read operations.

PERF_AVERAGE_BULK

Avg. Disk Bytes/Transfer

Shows the average number of bytes that were transferred to or from the disk during write or read operations.

PERF_AVERAGE_BULK

Avg. Disk Bytes/Write

Shows the average number of bytes that were transferred to the disk during write operations.

PERF_AVERAGE_BULK

Avg. Disk Queue Length

Shows the average number of both read and write requests that were queued for the selected disk during the sample interval.

PERF_COUNTER_LARGE_QUEUELEN_TYPE

Avg. Disk Read Queue Length

Shows the average number of read requests that were queued for the selected disk during the sample interval.

PERF_COUNTER_LARGE_QUEUELEN_TYPE

Avg. Disk sec/Read

Shows the average time, in seconds, of a read of data from the disk.

PERF_AVERAGE_TIMER

Avg. Disk sec/Transfer

Shows the average time, in seconds, of a disk transfer.

PERF_AVERAGE_TIMER

Avg. Disk sec/Write

Shows the average time, in seconds, of a write of data to the disk.

PERF_AVERAGE_TIMER

Avg. Disk Write Queue Length

Shows the average number of write requests that were queued for the selected disk during the sample interval.

PERF_COUNTER_LARGE_QUEUELEN_TYPE

Current Disk Queue Length

Shows the number of requests that were outstanding on the disk at the time that the performance data was collected. This is a snapshot, not an average over the time interval. It includes requests in service at the time of the collection. Multispindle disk devices can have multiple requests active at one time, but other concurrent requests are awaiting service. This counter might reflect a transitory high or low queue length, but if this counter is consistently high, then it is likely that there is a sustained load on the disk drive. Requests experience delays proportional to the length of this queue, minus the number of spindles on the disks. This difference should average less than two.

PERF_COUNTER_RAWCOUNT

Disk Bytes/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which bytes were transferred to or from the disk during write or read operations.

PERF_COUNTER_BULK_COUNT

Disk Read Bytes/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which bytes were transferred from the disk during read operations.

PERF_COUNTER_BULK_COUNT

Disk Reads/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which read operations were performed on the disk.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Disk Transfers/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which read and write operations were performed on the disk.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Disk Write Bytes/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which bytes were transferred to the disk during write operations.

PERF_COUNTER_BULK_COUNT

Disk Writes/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which write operations were performed on the disk.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

Split IO/sec

Shows the rate, in incidents per second, at which input/output (I/O) requests to the disk were split into multiple requests. A split I/O might result from requesting data in a size that is too large to fit into a single I/O, or from a fragmented disk subsystem.

PERF_COUNTER_COUNTER

See Also

Concepts

Find disk bottlenecks